Does the artbase have an historicization function?

what happened with " Hole in the Sky " by Tom Scarpino (Hi Tom) http://www.rhizome.org/object.rhiz?14018it's not a great thing for the reputation and the reliability of the artbase.Above all because it's a "curatorial oriented" process and not an automatic one.

1- Everybody depends from others, but in this case the work it's the same.

2- There isn't a duty in knowing my 2001 work (even if it passed through the list) but once this thing has been emphasized , why any official voice wrote me back?. ... everybody can make a mistake.. where is the problem?

I'm really disappointed from this behaviori was expecting an answer from the artbase crew.

Did you send copies to the artbase people, or just to the list? I find thatRhizome admins don't read the mailing list very often, or at least theydon't respond to the mailing list. They are "too busy." None of my lettersto Mark Tribe have ever been answered either, but I assume because they havebeen sent here, and not directly to him, and he is "too busy."

Second, in defense of rhizome, I think you are mistaken, it is more of anautomatic process than a curational one. Mostly, it is people look at thework, determine if it is net.art or not, and from there, the artist takescontrol of the process. I don't think they are interested in quality ororiginality all that much. I don't know who runs the selection processeither, but I would email them directly.

> Does the artbase have an historicization function?>> Does the artbase have "quality" as distinguishing mark?>>> what happened with " Hole in the Sky " by Tom Scarpino (Hi Tom)http://www.rhizome.org/object.rhiz?14018> it's not a great thing for the reputation and the reliability of theartbase.> Above all because it's a "curatorial oriented" process and not anautomatic one.>> 1- Everybody depends from others, but in this case the work it's the same.>> 2- There isn't a duty in knowing my 2001 work (even if it passed throughthe list) but once this thing has been emphasized ,> why any official voice wrote me back?. ... everybody can make amistake.. where is the problem?>> I'm really disappointed from this behavior> i was expecting an answer from the artbase crew.>> Thank you>> cz>> http://www.zanni.org> + ti esrever dna ti pilf nwod gniht ym tup> -> post: list@rhizome.org> -> questions: info@rhizome.org> -> subscribe/unsubscribe: http://rhizome.org/preferences/subscribe.rhiz> -> give: http://rhizome.org/support> +> Subscribers to Rhizome are subject to the terms set out in the> Membership Agreement available online at http://rhizome.org/info/29.php>

> >>Did you send copies to the artbase people>> I sent an email to Mark and Rachel>> >>I think you are mistaken, it is more of an automatic process than a> curational one> >>I don't think they are interested in quality or originality all thatmuch.>> I was thinking the opposite... if so: bad political choice..> what is the reason for submitting an artwork to the artbase?>> cz>>>> + ti esrever dna ti pilf nwod gniht ym tup> -> post: list@rhizome.org> -> questions: info@rhizome.org> -> subscribe/unsubscribe: http://rhizome.org/preferences/subscribe.rhiz> -> give: http://rhizome.org/support> +> Subscribers to Rhizome are subject to the terms set out in the> Membership Agreement available online at http://rhizome.org/info/29.php>>

I will forward these emails to Alena our artbase coordinator. She might be abroad however. I personally have little experience with the Artbase, and don't follow its policy.

Carlo, I got your email from two days ago, but didn't understand it -- you seemed to be comparing your work to someone else's. Reading your posts I am more confused. You don't like a project that was accepted into the artbase? It's too similar to yours? You want to know how projects are selected, and what the quality control process is -- have you looked here -- http://rhizome.org/artbase/policy.htm -- if you have a particular question about why one work was chosen and not another, you will have to wait for Alena to respond, I am afraid.

Generally speaking though, I think to expect Rhizome staff, or any list subscriber for that matter, to have the same reading/response strategy would be specious. Your expectations will not be met. These days I rarely read Rhizome Raw emails sequentially, for example.

This might seem obvious, but not everyone responds to emails as quickly as one would like. Frankly, that is par for the course, and not likely to change. I hope you can hang on.

>>> you seemed to be comparing your work to someone else's. Reading yourposts I am more confused. You don't like a project that was accepted intothe artbase?

I'm not comparing my work to someone else's. The fact is that TS's work isthe SAME I did 2 years ago and the problem is that ArtBase listed it.There isn't a duty to know my 2001 work (even if it passed through the list)but once this thing has been emphasized, I think artbase people have to payattention because this fact hides two key issues : memory and authorship.

I just want to defend my work. It's not possible to historicize a workalready done by another artist 2 years before.Simple and Clear.

When I read your initial post, I thought (as you seem to suggest below) thatyou were simply informing us that you did a similar project which may havebeen made before "Hole in the Sky." Although originality is one of thefactors we consider when deciding whether or not to include an artwork, itis virtually impossible to avoid all duplication (on a large and smallscale) in the archive. In fact, many artists have explored similar issuesusing similar means but, on some level or another, have ultimately producedprojects which each exhibit their own unique characteristics. Although theRhizome staff at times does encourage artists to submit their work to thearchive, we rarely solicit the submission of projects with methods similarto those of museum curators, who, for example, exhaustively vet theirpotential purchases for originality and so on.

Moreover, despite the fact that the ArtBase remains to be one of the mostcomprehensive archives of new media art, it is by no means entirelyexhaustive. As a result, a number of projects appropriate to the archiveand its aims (as your project appears to be) have not been included in thearchive, simply because artists do not venture to submit their work. Postingto the list does not automatically initiate this process.

Nevertheless, this duplication is certainly not intentional, and I apologizefor any personal offense you may have taken to our inclusion of "Hole in theSky" in the ArtBase. But especially since your project is currently not inthe archive and I did not come across your project as a past submission--Ijust checked my records, but please let me know if I am mistaken--to notinclude "Hole in the Sky" simply because your project exists somewhere elseseems a bit extreme. It is a more serious matter, of course, if you thinkthat your intellectual property has been infringed in some way.

> Does the artbase have an historicization function?> > Does the artbase have "quality" as distinguishing mark?> > > what happened with " Hole in the Sky " by Tom Scarpino (Hi Tom)> http://www.rhizome.org/object.rhiz?14018> it's not a great thing for the reputation and the reliability of the artbase.> Above all because it's a "curatorial oriented" process and not an automatic> one.> > 1- Everybody depends from others, but in this case the work it's the same.> > 2- There isn't a duty in knowing my 2001 work (even if it passed through the> list) but once this thing has been emphasized ,> why any official voice wrote me back?. ... everybody can make a mistake..> where is the problem?> > I'm really disappointed from this behavior> i was expecting an answer from the artbase crew.> > Thank you> > cz> > http://www.zanni.org> + ti esrever dna ti pilf nwod gniht ym tup> -> post: list@rhizome.org> -> questions: info@rhizome.org> -> subscribe/unsubscribe: http://rhizome.org/preferences/subscribe.rhiz> -> give: http://rhizome.org/support> +> Subscribers to Rhizome are subject to the terms set out in the> Membership Agreement available online at http://rhizome.org/info/29.php>

I want to support the idea that a number of artists can respond to an absence in the same way. In 2001, Carlo Zanni and Tom Scarpino responded to an absence by using the icon for an absent digital image. If you visit http://www.paulstgeorge.com/shopping/ you will see that I used the same tactic in 1999.

I want to support the idea that a number of artists can respond to an absence in the same way. In 2001, Carlo Zanni and Tom Scarpino responded to an absence by using the icon for an absent digital image. If you visit http://www.paulstgeorge.com/shopping/ you will see that I used the same tactic in 1999.

i think the broken image has been an interesting new idea added to vocabulary with the www - i used it first in connect/disconnect [no longer extant] to show missing webcam users around 96/97 - then later to play with realities and the dot.com crash in 2000 by posting broken stickers on advertisements around san francisco. i had a tshirt too, but only two people bought it. check them out at